VIPER I NE FANGS. 379 



an immense deal of loose skin to remove, which under 

 skilful manipulation would doubtless have presented the 

 form of sheaths of various sizes. At last I came to a great 

 deep cavity as big as a bean or a hazel nut, and this I left 

 neat and uninjured for some one else to explore. It might 

 have been the poison gland ! The young Jararaca's mouth 

 is too small to reveal its mysteries. 



But now we come to the most amazing of all the won- 

 drous detail of this living hypodermic syringe. Those who 

 have seen a viper or a rattlesnake strike its prey, are 

 cognisant of the lightning-like rapidity of the action. So 

 swift is it that often a spectator is not sure whether the 

 snake touched the victim or not. A flicker, a flash, and the 

 bite has been given. Dr. Mitchcl, describing the singular 

 inactivity of rattlesnakes in confinement, points out the 

 striking contrast between this repose and the perilous 

 rapidity of their stroke. Now let us look at the amount of 

 business transacted in that flash of time. Says Dr. Elliot 

 Coues : ' The train of action is first reaching the object ; 

 secondly, the blow ; thirdly, the penetration ; fourthly, the 

 injection ; and fifthly, the enlargement of the wound (the 

 latter by dragging upon it the whole weight of the body by 

 the contraction of certain muscles, which cause the fangs to 

 be buried deeper and thus enlarge the puncture) ; and all 

 these five actions accomplished in that instantaneous stroke ! ' 

 This is what Fayrer means when explaining that * the real 

 bite is when the snake seizes, retains its hold, and thoroughly 

 imbeds its fanc^s.' ' Sometimes the lower teeth and the 

 palatine become entangled (and sometimes a fang is left in 

 the wound). . . . The force of ejection may be seen when a 



